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My three "classic paranormal" experiences

Paranormal Novice

I've had three experiences in my 79 years which fall within what many folks consider classic "paranormal."

Sadly, all three were very limited and bland, but what the heck, I'm retired so why not tap them out on my keyboard anyway.

GHOST

I had been downsized out of my last technical job and was working my last three years as a security guard. One of my colleagues saw an actual white ghost in a school where a large train wreck had happened, and which was used as a morgue.

My experience wasn't so spectacular.

I was guarding an older (1894) elementary school where renovations were underway, and someone was needed to keep vandals and thieves off the site.

When I arrived for my first evening shift, the cleaning lady was just finishing up, and shared with me that I might encounter their familiar resident ghost, "Miss Lucy." Miss Lucy was a principal at the school circa the turn of the century (1900.)

OK, no problem, ... I see ghosts as people, and I accept that while there are no doubt a few bad apples, most aren't likely to do bad things.

Around 2:00 a.m., I had finished my rounds and headed back into the maintenance office in the basement, which was where guards were to sit between rounds.

I noticed a strong scent of lavender just inside the doorway. There was no vegetation of any kind anywhere in the basement. Obviously, I wondered if this was a manifestation of Miss Lucy, so I carefully backed out into the hall, and re-entered the office a couple of times.

The scent was fixed just inside the door, and stayed there as I passed through it. Strong, not some sort of illusion.

The following morning, I asked the cleaning lady what the lavender scent might mean, and she replied that lavender was Miss Lucy's favourite.

The reason Miss Lucy is anchored there is tragic - one of her students hid deep inside one of the odd-shaped structural channels surrounding the basement, because he had broken some rule. Miss Lucy and others were apparently unable to find him, and he died, stuck in the channel. Miss Lucy never got over it, and I suppose many of us would not get over that either.

UFO

During the period I was working as a guard, one site was a 7-level parkade. The top level formed the roof.

About 1:00 a.m., on a perfectly clear autumn evening, I absent-mindedly looked up vertically, and saw a bright white disc there. No way to accurately estimate size or altitude, but my rough guess would be a 30-foot diameter disc at maybe 500 to 800 feet. (I've done a little flying.)

It was emitting its own light, not reflecting.

It was definitely not a spotlight mounted on a helicopter - the sight picture of a solid disc emitting light uniformly is very distinct from a spotlight.

For ~5 seconds, the disc sat there unchanged

For another ~5 seconds, the disc slowly moved to the northeast, along the north shore of Lake Ontario.

For a third ~5 seconds, the disc continued moving northeast, and shrank to a point of light, then winked out.

No sound whatsoever.

There was no wind. There were no aircraft in the area. The colour of the disc was white, similar to a bright moon.

There was a moon that night, but it was fairly low on the southern horizon at the time - I was not confusing the moon with this object.

Very roughly, the disc I saw was maybe 1/5th to 1/6th of the diameter of the moon.

BIGFOOT

I now live in genuine wilderness, in an area where there have been a few reports of bigfoot sightings.

On the morning of March 10, 2018, at about 9:15 a.m., the weather was clear and sunny. The area was covered in snow, depth between maybe 18 and 24 inches.

The snow had a heavy crust of ice, caused by a brief period of warm weather which melted the surface.

This snow condition was close to un-passable by a human, even with snowshoes, because if one tried to walk on the untrodden snow, your weight would be held by the ice for a few seconds, then you would break through and have your lower limbs very uncomfortably wrenched.

Nobody was walking in untrodden areas that morning, it was impossible.

As I waited for the local minibus service to show up at the stop, in the open field behind where the bus was to round the corner, I saw a huge being, unbroken black from head to foot, struggling to walk on untrodden snow uphill, along the forest tree line.

He actually fell down and had to get up and dust himself off. There was nothing human-like about this being. His hands were disproportionately huge, and gave the impression he was wearing a pair of baseball catchers' mitts.

There was no snout like a bear, and no ears sticking up like a bear's. His shoulders were wide, visible when he turned. A standing bear has no shoulders at all. (My angle of view was mostly a side view.)

There was nothing suggesting a human with all black clothing. A ski mask would have visible mouth and eye openings, and this being had no such features. This being's body was unbroken by flaps indicating clothing.

After about a minute, the bus came, and that was the end of the sighting. No other witnesses.

Unfortunately, I had an errand which forced me to go out, but I was extremely ill that morning and there was no way I could attempt to crunch through a couple of hundred feet of crust with soft snow underneath to get a look at the footprints.

However, my vision is good enough that I'm satisfied this was not a human.